3 Things: James Casey, PJ Hicks, and Stone Skimming
Hi friends,
It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with one thing I think is great, one thing that made me laugh, and one thing I found interesting. Feel free to spread the word and share these emails with friends. If you're checking this out for the first time, you can sign up to get these emails here.
Live shows
NEW YORK:
FREE Sunday, October 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Union Hall. Judah Friedlander (30 Rock) was just added to the lineup for my variety show and audience prize giveaway, You Get A Spoon. Come see Judah, Elna Baker (This American Life), Friends Who Folk (The New Yorker), and more, while I play the role of straight white male Oprah, giving away our favorite things to the audience. Link
BOSTON:
Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at The Museum of Science. A special You're the Expert taping and party. Link
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ:
FREE Wednesday, November 9 at 7:00 p.m. at The George Street Playhouse. A special Rutgers edition of You're the Expert. This show is free and open to the public, you just have to register online to reserve your spot. Link
You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
James Casey, the man behind the "anti-foodie food magazine" Swallow, loves breakfast. He made this great short film about all the different foods people in Los Angeles eat to start their day, from a body-builder to a buddhist monk. It's really fun. Also, I think somehow this might be a commercial for Audi. That part is very unclear to me. No matter what, watching this is a great way to start your morning. What Is Breakfast?
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
PJ Hicks is a wildlife photographer based in Tanzania. He's also the mastermind behind the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The rules are simple: an unedited photo, featuring wild animals, that makes you laugh.
The results are hilarious. I think my favorites from this year's crop are the grizzly bear getting smacked in the face by a salmon or the groundhog sniffing a piece of grass. But they're all excellent. The 2016 Comedy Wildlife Finalists
1 Interesting Thing:
Every fall, on a small island off the coast of Scotland, one of the world's greatest athletic competitions takes place. It's the World Stone Skimming Championships.
Matt McDonald covered this year's competition for Outdoor magazine and it's fascinating. People take the sport very seriously. "Ron Long, the 2012 winner, also produces artificial stones, which he feels level the playing field in competitions by removing variables like rock shape and weight. He sees big—even Olympic-sized—possibilities for the sport." The article includes helpful tips for the best skipping techniques, if you're trying to train for Tokyo 2020. Inside the Lively World of Competitive Stone Skimming
Ok, thanks for reading! Feel free to find more details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
3 Things: John Baldessari, Bill Wurtz, and Bianca Giaever
Hi friends,
It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with one thing I think is great, one thing that made me laugh, and one thing I found interesting. Feel free to spread the word and share these emails with friends. If you're checking this out for the first time, you can sign up to get these emails here.
Live shows
NEW YORK:
Monday, October 17 at 8 p.m. at The Creek and the Cave. I'm telling stories and then improvisers will turn them into scenes. It's a free show and the Creek has amazing burritos. Link
Wednesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. at House of Yes. It's another edition of Sensory Speed Dating presented by Guerilla Science. Join me and a neuroscientist as we help explore the science of attraction. Last month, it was hilarious and amazing and I can't wait to do it again. Link
Sunday, October 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Union Hall. My monthly variety show and audience prize giveaway, You Get A Spoon, is back with stories from Elna Baker (This American Life), songs from Friends Who Folk (The New Yorker), and a chance to win the world's greatest spoon. Link
BOSTON:
Sunday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. at The Rockwell. You're the Expert returns to Boston with a mystery scientist, panelists Maeve Higgins, Ken Reid, and Steve Macone, and lots of fun surprises. Link
Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at The Museum of Science. A special You're the Expert taping and party. Link
You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Today is an all short films edition of 3 Things.
"The epic life of a world-class artist, jammed into six minutes." This profile of John Baldessari is amazing. Baldessari is famous for promising to not make any boring art. He definitely delivers on that vow. At one point, he incinerated everything he'd ever made. To this day, he keeps the ashes in a secret metal book. Another time, he decided he was going to focus on designing art that went only on credit cards. His three tips for young artists are hilarious and amazing. Overall, you know you've done something right when Tom Waits narrates the documentary of your life. A Brief History of John Baldessari
(h/t Nick McKinney and Meghan O'Hara)
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
I know I've recommended this once before, but this is my all-time favorite Internet video. Bill Wurtz is a true genius. How do you take Japan's entire history and turn it into a hilarious, historically accurate, music video that 17 million people have watched? I am in awe. Bill Wurtz's History of Japan
1 Interesting Thing:
Another genius filmmaker is Bianca Giaever. She's endlessly creative, she has a distinct visual style, and all of her films are overflowing with heart. I am a huge fan of everything she does. One of my favorites is a film she made where she "asked a six year old what my film should be about, and this is what he told me": The Scared is Scared
I also can't think of anyone who's captured the feeling of a broken heart better than Bianca in her film Holy Cow Lisa. Check out everything she makes!
Ok, thanks for reading! Feel free to find more details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
3 Things: Ali Wong, Unfortunate Logos, and Cobalt
Hi friends,
It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with one thing I think is great, one thing that made me laugh, and one thing I found interesting. Feel free to spread the word and share these emails with friends. If you're checking this out for the first time, you can sign up to get these emails here.
Live shows
NEW YORK:
Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. at The Magnet Theater. I'm the featured storyteller at The Armando Diaz experience. It's always hilarious. Link
Tuesday, October 11 at 7 p.m. at Carolines. I'm on Comedy Central's Comics to Watch showcase. Come watch me! Link
BOSTON:
Sunday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. at The Rockwell. You're the Expert returns to Boston with Maeve Higgins, Ken Reid, a mystery scientist and a special guest. Link
Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at The Museum of Science. A special You're the Expert taping and party. Link
You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Ali Wong has been telling jokes for a long time, but she shot to stardom recently after she recorded a comedy special, Baby Cobra, while nine months pregnant. If you think telling filthy jokes to a roomful of drunk strangers is hard, try doing it the day before you give birth.
There aren't many great magazine profiles of standup comics. It's tough to convey the process and how comics shape their material. But Ariel Levy is an outstanding writer and she really captures what makes Ali special. Ali Wong's Radical Rauch
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Going from the intentionally filthy to the unintentionally so...
You're a corporate CEO and you're rebranding. You need a new logo. Everything is going great until you hold a big press conference and the Internet goes wild. Turns out your new logo looks a lot like a weiner.
Fear no more. Josh Mishell created a design agency dedicated to identifying logos that look like private parts. It's truly hilarious and genius and it's called GenitalsOrNot.com. I dare you to scroll through their logo Hall of Fame without laughing.
1 Interesting Thing:
If you're reading this on a smartphone, you're holding about 5-10 grams of cobalt. If you're on a laptop, you've got about an ounce. Lithium-ion batteries, and our modern devices, wouldn't exist without cobalt, but if you're like me, you know pretty much nothing about it or where it comes from.
The Washington Post's Todd Frankel spent months researching cobalt and the story he found is breathtaking. This is investigative journalism of the highest caliber and it's paired with unforgettable videos and photos. You have to read this story. The Cobalt Pipeline
(h/t Sandra Allen)
Ok, thanks for reading this! Feel free to find more details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
